Plan will be wide open to legal objections, says Howlin
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar’s massive plan for the development of Ireland up to 2040 is wide open to legal challenges, according to the Labour Party.
Former public expenditure minister Brendan Howlin told the Irish Independent the Government is trying to “sidestep” a Dáil vote on the plan and, in turn, EU regulations.
The claim is denied by the Department of Housing, which authored the National Planning Framework (NPF).
Opposition parties had expected that the plan would be brought to the Dáil ahead of its formal launch, which will take place in Co Sligo today.
The NPF outlines priority growth regions for the next two decades and will be launched in tandem with a National Development Plan that includes a €115bn spending spree on hospitals, schools, roads and other infrastructure.
Mr Howlin said the framework should be underpinned in law and be subject to EU environmental directives including the need to first prepare a strategic environmental assessment.
“There isn’t the slightest doubt that this could be subject to protracted legal argument that could go all the way to the European courts,” he said.
Mr Howlin said in his prediction there would “certainly be legal challenges against it” which would ultimately delay the rollout of the individual schemes to be announced.
The Labour Party leader said he was not threatening his party taking legal action, but also declined to rule it out.
The issue was raised by Labour’s Alan Kelly during a briefing with Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy earlier this week.
But Government sources said they had completed an environmental impact assessment which would be updated again in the coming weeks.
They described the claims as a “red herring”.
Meanwhile, Rural Development Minister Michael Ring, who has been heavily involved it the recent reworking of the plan, has dismissed Opposition criticism of it.
“Of course I know there’ll be people looking for the negativity. We expect that. We expect the Opposition to be trying to look for things that are not in it.
“But I’m very happy and I think we have done a good job in the plan, and I think when we announce it the people of Ireland will be happy with it as well.”
Communications Minister Denis Naughten promised the NPF would have “a very distinctive rural perspective” and he believed it would be “the key driver of economic development right across the regions”.